"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

An Arne Duncan Reader

While Secretary of Education Arne Duncan—career-long bureaucrat who has never taught and has no formal background in education—has created a controversy over his swipe at "white suburban moms," the great irony comes from his equally vapid apology, in which he concludes: "Let’s get back to that conversation, because it’s an important one for our country."

Yes, we should not be distracted by this one comment from Duncan, because there is plenty to address, a "conversation," in fact, that has never occurred because Duncan himself is the great pontificator, not subject to engaging in a conversation about education—in part because of his arrogance and privilege, and in part because he has no background or expertise in the field in order to have a conversation.

Thus, an Arne Duncan Reader: both for everyone to read and one Duncan himself should study:

“One of the violences perpetuated by illiteracy is the suffocation of the consciousness and the expressiveness of men and women who are forbidden from reading and writing, thus limiting their capacity to write about their reading of the world so they can rethink about their original reading of it.” Paulo Freire, Teachers as Cultural Workers